Libation
by Leng-Xue
Summary: One-shot I thought up after watching Yakuza Kiwami. Letters between two old brothers. Losing one's path is often something that can be painful. Possible spoilers for the series.


**A/N: Just a little something I thought up after watching Kiwami... It was so sad seeing Nishikiyama and Kiryu fight as enemies after so many years apart. When I saw the look on Kiryu's face in the download screen as they walked away from each other, it broke my heart.**

 **XXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **For readers unfamiliar with the Ryu Ga Gotoku series, here's some background:**

 **In 1995, Kazuma Kiryu, a renowned yakuza who was also known as the Dragon of Dojima, was arrested under the charges of murder. It was thought that he had killed Sohei Dojima, the leader of his "family." In reality, his sworn brother, Akira Nishikiyama, had been the one who shot Sohei after he kidnapped Yumi, a childhood friend of both Akira and Kazuma.**

 **Ten years later, Kazuma was released from prison. Upon his return to the yakuza world, he finds that Nishikiyama had gone rogue from the family and betrayed their foster father, Shintaro Kazama, to create his own group. In the time they were apart, he looked for power and murdered to find it.**

 **As the strongest yakuza in Tokyo, Kazuma carries the tattoo of a dragon on his back while Akira carries a koi. In Japanese mythology, the koi swims up the stream to defeat the dragon in hopes of taking its place. This is the symbolism behind their relationship.**

 **Kazuma took the betrayals of his brother on his own shoulders and set out to fix them. This fic details the aftermath of their final fight.**

 **Entry for the _WA Alternate Format Challenge_ _._**

* * *

I don't remember what we left unsaid.

Lightning flashed in your eyes that night. It was the same as that slash of white that highlighted the grisly scene before us: our dead Oyabun in a pool of his own blood, Yumi only a few feet away sitting shaken and scared out of her mind.

Kazama-san always said you had beautiful eyes. I didn't believe him until then, until you pried the gun from my shaking fingers and told me to _go_. The burning black of your gaze sucked me in, grasping me with that same intensity that I had associated with you since we swore our loyalty. In that instant, I died. My soul fled from my body and Ebisu-sama made me his slave. Fortune poured down on me in a way I would never have dreamed.

But you, you never changed, did you? A decade of prison, a decade of lost brotherhood. A decade of being alone. How did I ever begin to believe I could defeat the Dragon of Dojima?

In the end, I couldn't do anything. I couldn't protect you or her…I couldn't even protect myself. The stars had aligned themselves that night, sealing our combined fates. Now, we walk an empty path, a separate one since the day you were released. When the moon shines bright and the air hangs low in the night, the koi will defy the casted lots. It will covet what never can be. What never should. The dragon will fly with the dawn and bring a new era over the boundary of heaven and earth.

I wish I could see the rain in your heart. I wish I could understand.

I wish it didn't hurt so badly, my old friend.

My hands have been dyed with red. The sin of Kamurocho permeates my pores. I live and die with every breath, every step, and every action, and I welcome it with all my being. I beg for the power. In return, I blacken the streets with my presence. I spread the filth that this concrete jungle deserves.

It's too late for someone like me. You wouldn't understand that.

I raise a toast to the sky and spill the sake to the ground in front of this grave. Enma-o will bless this desecrated land between the legend and the upstart, the two boys who once played together in the streets of Tokyo.

You and I, we were never the same kind.

Nishikiyama

December 23, 2005

* * *

When we fought, I could hear your voice, see your every thought flash through the power in your fists. We spoke that day, remembering all those years ago. There was nothing but that moment. The koi shooting up the stream to face the dragon, its wish so close to being granted…

With every dodge, every drop of sweat, every spark of red, we wrestled and rolled down the hill by Sunshine Orphanage. Yumi's eyes burned into both our panting figures. It was like we were swimming in the ocean all over again, that long haired little girl we both loved and cherished only staring on in mild worry.

I couldn't believe it had come to this. Where had all those lost memories gone? You swept around my left-hook, coming back from the right. Years, months, days, seconds… You had given me something I could never repay.

And you knew that too. This wasn't a fight over the money anymore. It wasn't about even Yumi. The moment our kicks connected, we both knew this would be the last of the diseased ridden beast you called 'rivalry.'

It was all my fault, wasn't it? Taking the heat for Dojima?

Your knuckles crackled against my jaw. _Yes._

But you were faltering, Kyodai. My foot connected with your gut, sending you hurtling to the ground.

Unshed tears rained down in my heart of hearts. The salty tang of the ocean filled the room in the form of blood.

Nothing could ever be the same. The final blow sealed that. It acknowledged the death of innocence, the parting of life and death. Flat on your back and nearly unconscious, you reminded me of a fish out of water, that teary eyed boy I'd met on a summer's day in Okinawa.

I wanted to hold out my hand and help you up. That's what you did for me, no? Your hands were sticky with ice cream. You said, _I'll be there whenever you fall._

There weren't any more scratched up knees lined up in our future. Just broken bonds and torn promises. Your breath shook. I knew you were weeping too. For our fate, for the pain, for never relinquishing the chains that bound you…

When you pushed Jingu out of the way, your eyes shattered. Chrysanthemums bloomed and burst in your pupils, in that gaping wound on your side. Red flowed, staining them with your loss.

The pain would never cease. It melted into my heart.

 _Accept it._

I didn't hear the shot. The blast that tore away my sanity and took you away. You acted as tough as you always did when we were kids. Those bruises on your face were dark like the blackest of nights, like a dying flame on dull coal.

I never thought we would say goodbye.

Your brother,

Kazuma

December 26, 2005

* * *

Two sheets of paper lie at the edge of a marble headstone, slightly singed with gray ash. A small ceramic pot keeps them company, a dozen of jovial incense sticks smoking inside it.

The neatly folded, cream piece of stationery sighs in the wind. It flutters with lost dreams, its legacy forgotten in the midst of greed. It dreams of power, of wealth, of loneliness, and regret.

The other, a thin leaf from what appears to be a schoolgirl's notebook, comforts it. Though it is written in pencil, smudged, and possesses flecks of crayon, it sings of hope and forgiveness. Its very existence says there is always a new tomorrow.

A man in a light grey suit picks them up, the flame from his lighter catching hungrily on their worn edges.

 _Let the river of eternity deliver you._

He claps his hands twice, lowering his head as the black flakes swirl over the ground. When he finishes, a young girl runs up to him, looping her arm through his. They stroll away from the grave…

To where home awaits.

* * *

 **Additional Notes:**

 **Ebisu-sama: the god of mercantilism, bounty, fishing, and luck.**

 **Enma-o: the lord of hell.**

 **River of Eternity: the Sanzu-river. Divides the mortal realm from hell; comparable to the Styx.**

 **Chrysanthemums: flowers of death due to their white color. In Asia, white is the color of death.**

 **Kyodai: respectful title for 'sworn brother.'**

 **Kamurocho: In English, this would be better known as 'Kamuro City,' the main setting of the games and home to the characters.**

 **Oyabun: Literally 'father.' Title for the leader of a yakuza clan.**


End file.
